Serbia has friends in Slovenia

By
Euronews

The EU’s presiding nation for the next six months – Slovenia – has placed integration of the Western Balkans in general high on its priority list.

Slovenian foreign minister Dimitrij Rupel concluded a day of meetings between his government and the European Commission in Ljubljana saying:

“With regards to Serbia, we have decided to create a special task force. The aim of this group will be to speed up Serbia’s progress towards joining the European Union.”

The first of the ex-communist new EU members to hold the bloc’s presidency, Slovenia says it favours giving Belgrade closer EU ties – through a stability pact or SAA.

Commissioner Ollie Rehn said warcomes cooperation had to come first:

“Now it is essential that Serbia should do everything
in its power to arrest and transfer all the remaining
fugitives : this has been, this is still and will be
the essential condition of the signature of SAA agreement with Serbia.”

Slovenia’s main EU priorities include building a unified position on the status of Kosovo, an environmentally viable energy plan, and taking care not to muddy the waters in the context of the member states’ ratification of the EU’s new reform treaty.